Why the U.S owes Haiti Billions - The Briefest History

Why does the US owe Haiti Billions? Colin Powell, former US Secretary of State, stated his foreign policy view as the "Pottery Barn rule." That is - "if you break it, you own it."

These are some of the principles that are stated in the article, "Why the U.S owes Haiti Billions - The Briefest History by Bill Quigley (also posted on Dr.J's blog. Mainly what I derived from this article is that the United States and Haiti do not possess the greatest relationship with each other. Quigley states that we owe Haiti a matter of justice, not charity such as the 100 million dollars that President Obama has vowed to give Haiti in which is "Powerball Money". However the question comes into play, why do we owe Haiti charity? Is the reason because we are a major country and in most situations the United States would help an ally in need? Or is it because we have exploited the Haitian population, drained their economy financially over countless decades, and invaded them militarily as Quigley proclaims? Anyone is entitled to their own opinion and there is no incorrect answer and I would like briefly view some history to generate some type of conclusion for this data.

Historically the United States and Haiti have not had the best international relations whatsoever. In between 1915 and 1934 President Woodrow Wilson sent troops to invade the country, killing over 2000 Haitian citizens. For about 19 yrs after the United States collected taxes, controlled customs in Haiti, and ran government institutions, siphoning billions of dollars under Haitian dictatorship. Also Haiti used to be a mass producer of sugar, well not anymore, their product has became rice due to that the United States had ruined their agriculture. Again the United States has sexually exploited the Haitian people for years, recreating the events that happened in the slave plantations.

Truly the United States has caused a good amount of turmoil to Haiti morally and economically. It would be true to say that the United States does owe Haiti quite a bit of money (billions) but this article comes from only a journalist which is one opinion out of thousands of journalists in the country. Quigley does express his opinion rather harshly and does get his point across. However we must look at both sides of the story and even the truth, in which sometimes does not get discovered. First and foremost how do we know that these facts are extremely true why would it justify that the United States owes Haiti. Honestly if you look at many situations the involve the United States, we truly owe many countries what they have done for us and what we have not done from them. But why Haiti? Probably because it took a major earthquake to finally make the United States develop a conscience and help a country that needs help, Haiti.

Does the United States owe Haiti as Quigley states or do we owe them in the sense of charity?